A number of different printing devices utilize replaceable consumable products such as toner cartridges. For example, printing devices, such as, laser printers, multiple function peripheral devices (MFPs), copy machines, and the like have been designed with replaceable toner cartridges that enable a user to quickly and efficiently replenish toner when the device exhausts toner from an existing cartridge. Many consumable cartridges carry one or more elements that rotate within the cartridge, such as photoconductive drums, developer rollers, and the like. Such consumable cartridges typically have a rotatable member that is accessible from the outside of the cartridge and which is configured to engage a drive member carried by the printing device. The drive member rotates the rotatable member, which in turn drives the other rotating elements within the cartridge. Successful operation of the printing device depends upon the drive member engaging the rotatable member.
One problem associated with the use of some replaceable toner cartridges results when the drive member of the printing device does not successfully or sufficiently engage the rotatable member of the cartridge. Failure to engage the cartridge may result from several causes. For example, the cartridge may not be properly or fully inserted into the printing device due to a user's unfamiliarity with how to replace the cartridge, engagement may be blocked by debris, or biasing means intended to urge engagement may weaken or fail over time, to name a few possible causes. In many instances, the cartridge may appear to be fully inserted into the printing device, and the failure to engage may not be readily apparent to the user, other than the printing device's inability to properly operate.
Failure of the drive member to engage the rotatable member is typically simple to rectify. However, because an engagement failure is often difficult to identify by the user, the user often resorts to making a service call for repair of the printing device. The user is then required to endure a delay in using the printing device while the service call is answered. Such delay would be unnecessary if the engagement failure could be readily identified by the user.